Peanuts! Getcher Peanuts Here!

If you have been to a baseball game or other major sporting event you are well aware of how prevalent unshelled peanuts are. Interestingly there have been several press releases recently advertising 'peanut restrictions' at sporting events. The most recent was for a peanut free home date for a Michigan soccer team. Another prominent example from baseball is the Minnesota Twins, who offer a peanut free skybox for four of their home games.

While a peanut free game is encouraging, I find the Twins offering to be patronizing, more than helpful. Though the Twins' press coverage generates allergy awareness, offering up one section for 5% of your games when you are averaging 28,000 fans in a 48,000 seat field is a pittance. I challenge the Twins and other major league teams to do more. It is great that they recognize this to be an issue. Though it would require some planning and oversight, it would be ideal if every stadium had a reasonable percentage of its seats designated as peanut free, or at least as peanut-shell free.

The last five times I have gone to an NHL game, in three different arena, a person within 5 seats of me has been eating a bag of unshelled peanuts. The fun of eating nuts this way is that it is publicly acceptable to make a huge mess. The downside is that I have to brush the peanut debris from my clothing before I head home to give my daughter a goodnight kiss. I am not looking to ban peanuts, but I would certainly prefer that only shelled peanuts were sold.

I understand that sporting events and peanuts go hand in hand. I used to eat a bag of unshelled peanuts myself at every NHL or NFL game I attended, complete with the aforementioned pile of shells at my feet. Now that I am aware of the danger that this might pose for those with allergies I could not imagine doing this again. Though there is a debate as to how dangerous this really is, a quick Internet turns up multiple cases of severe allergic reactions.

The Twins are helping on the awareness front but I challenge them to take a leadership role in making the game even safer for their younger peanut-allergic allergic fans. As we develop additional insight into severe food allergy, I hope that one day unshelled peanuts will become an artifact of sporting legend.